Saturday Sky Take 10

It's a beautiful day today, the last day of September. Sixty-five degrees with an even better day forcasted for tomorrow.

More Socks?

I started knitting the circus socks so long ago I can't even remember. Upon further inspection of the blog, my memory was jogged. The socks managed to make appearances here and here and here and here. They seem to be quite the blog whore but they've been put to rest in the hand knit sock drawer never to be blogged about again.
Started: April 14, 2005
Finished: September 26, 2006
Yarn: Regia stretch color # 81
Needles: #3 birch dpn's
Pattern: A basic sock pattern from a beginner sock knitting class
Crazy trivia about these socks: This yarn was the very first ball of sock yarn I ever purchased, right around when my Grandma died in 2003. I attemped knitting a sock with it while my brother was here for her funeral, we were watching tv in my parents living room. Well, I didn't really get the hang of sock knitting at that point. About 5 months later I took a beginning sock knitting class and things have been out of control ever since.

Recycle Challenge

The most recent pincushion challenge was to make one using recycled objects. If you visited me earlier in the week you saw the 2 thrift store sweaters I picked up, the pincushion was their destiny.
Casey & I spent some time in the craft room yesterday afternoon turning those sweaters into a cupcake pincushion.
I threw the sweaters into a hot water wash to felt them up a bit so the wool was thicker and when I took the sweaters out of the dryer I found the nice round wad of wool that I placed on the top to act as a cherry. The pins are supposed to resemble sprinkles, I made them out of FIMO clay. I can't wait to see what other crafters came up with for this challenge!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Lobstah!

A while back I mentioned to Splatgirl that I've always wanted to eat a lobster roll. Before you all gasp at once, remember that I live in the land locked Midwest. That would be no where near an ocean with fresh lobsters, lobster rolls are not found here. Apparently Splatgirl has the memory of um...well, whatever has a good memory and she made me lobster rolls for my birthday dinner!!! It was delicious.
Dessert couldn't be served until I guessed what it was. Peanut Butter/Chocolate Rice Krispie bars and homemade pistachio ice cream. I did guess in fairly good time because the bars are my fav and I casually mentioned the pistachio ice cream at some point in time. Remember...Splatgirl's memory is superb.
Then came the presents. Apparently Splatgirl knows what I like to do (sleep & lounge)...she sewed me a new set of fly jammies with a Hawaiian theme! Here I am modeling them complete with bed head. And believe me when I tell you this girl can sew! And sorry about the wrinkles, I've slept in them by this point. They were very nicely pressed when she presented them to me.
Yipee!! I LoVe my new jammies!!

And because a present from Splatgirl isn't really complete without a kitchen tool, she gave me a silicone Grandmother's fork similar to this one (but mine is red) plus a bag of whole nutmeg, but that's a whole other story!

THANKS A TON SPLATGIRL!!!!! I had a great time, you really know how to make a birthday rock!

These Sweaters Have Met Their Death

Aren't you curious to know what I'll be doing with these???

Moto with Very Little Knitting

This past week I fell right off the face of the Earth right into the racing scene. We made our way to the racetrack Friday morning, hung out with friends, wrenched a bit on the bikes and I even managed to get a few stitches knit. Then Saturday it was all business. Usually Kyle & I both work flags and corners but since he was racing this weekend I worked without him. Working on the track allows me to get close enough to take cool photos like this one of him coming around the 10th and last turn of the 3.1. mile track.


Here's my Saturday Sky entry for this week. It was cloudy but dry and warm.


On Sunday Kyle participated in a 5 hour endurance race with 2 of his friends, Joe & Pat. I think this is his game face. Today when we were looking at the photos from the weekend he said he didn't remember me taking this, I guess he had a few other things on his mind.


The beginning of the endurance race just off the starting grids. No, we aren't allowed to stand at the wall for the race, only for the start and last lap. Only two timing people per team are allowed to stand there for the entire race, the bikes come by at crazy speeds.


My friend Amy telling Kyle (the blur on the right) to pit the next time around. She kept track of the laps and times. He was probably going 145 mph here, no wonder he had a game plan.


Joe burned up the rest of the rear tire when the race was complete. And now racing is over for 2006. We had a great season and can't wait to go back next summer.

A Belated Gift

Someone I know had a birthday way back in June and I just finally finished this gift for her. She should find them in her mailbox tomorrow...
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM - 1 skein
Color: #143
Needles: #3 birch DPN
Pattern: Basically Alison's Ankle Socks but I replaced the short row toe with my standard decreased toe.
Started: July 13, 2006
Finished: September 12, 2006
Knit for: Surprise! Maybe she'll comment here...

Pie Baking Extravaganza

Today I took a trip over to Splatgirl's house for a pie baking lesson. We started out by shopping for apples at the Arboretum Applehouse. I picked up Paula Reds, 1606 (the apples aren't named for a couple of years) and some Zestar!™ apples for eating. Splatgirl taught me how to make a perfect pie crust and then we got started peeling and cutting the apples. Lunch was definitely in the cards so she whipped up a scrummy bacon, brie & apple panini...delicious! While she sliced her apples, I took advantage of the abundance of natural light in her house and took photos of a finished knit. While the pies baked we played around with our hand spindles and I tormented the kitties a little bit too. About an hour ago I finially sliced a piece of pie for myself...it tasted as good as it looks. Thanks for the pie lesson Splatgirl!!!

Remembering 9/11

I Love Me a Big Purse

I was eagerly waiting for Labor Day to arrive for one reason, the change from my little purse to my darker colored bigger purse. I'm not sure where I came up with this "purse rule" but I always use a small purse for summer. This year I reached a breaking point with the little purse and really needed more space. Plus, it was constantly tipping over in the car spilling the contents into all the nooks and crannys. You better believe that a few minutes were set aside Labor Day afternoon for purse cleaning & swapping.
Once again I completely flopped on Saturday Sky. I did take two sky photos today but neither one turned out. Maybe I'll grab one tomorrow. A Sunday sky would be better than no sky at all right?

Dinner

Chicken legs are one of my favorite foods to grill so on Monday I grilled chicken legs. First I marinated them in a ginger-soy marinade, next time I'll marinade them a while longer. Served with a Caesar salad, it was a perfect Labor Day dinner.
This is what happens when you really want to blog about something and only take one photo...it turns out blurry. Lesson learned.

Ginger-Soy Marinade/Sauce/Salad dressing
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1" piece fresh ginger, grated
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Casey's doing fine, thanks for all your well wishes!!!!

On the Road to Recovery

Casey's back home and recovering nicely. He was quite groggy for most of the evening but did his share of poking around the back yard too. If you really want to see the tooth, you can click here.
On a good note, his nails were trimmed really good and his other teeth are nice and clean. He has a round of antibiotics to finish and then he'll be A-OK.

More Swag for Casey Blue

My baby got a new collar made especially for him from Auntie Splatgirl. As far as I could tell he likes it, I mean look at how he's modeling it!
I'm off work again today and a little sad because last night we noticed some swelling on Casey's cheek. Well, he's had a chipped tooth on that side for several years that we've just been watching and it finally started to act up. So, Casey is at the vet today getting the tooth pulled, a complete teeth cleaning and a nail trim. It's quiet around here without him ;-(
I've never wanted a day off to go by so fast...

School is in Session

For some reason, this year I've been crazy for school supplies. I picked up a box of 96 crayons (with a sharpener ;-), an 18 pack of twistable colored pencils, a 24 pack of twistable crayons, a pack of 50 fine tipped Crayola markers and a pencil box to stow them in. What's up? I can't seem to get enough of this stuff. Kids are lucky these days, so many neat-o supplies. We had a list for school that consisted of pens, pencils, glue and notebooks. Boring.
Psst...it's Splatgirls birthday today...

I Like Your Booga Bag

Last Friday when I got to the MN State Fair, the first stop was the fried green tomato stand for my friend Paula. While in line I hear this timid voice say "I like your Booga bag". I said thank you and told her she must be a knitter since she knew what pattern I had used. She told me she had made one a while back.
The funny thing is, I've never used my Booga bag until Friday. I don't really like the colors but I was wearing an orange shirt and it matched so I went with it.
Anonymous State Fair knitter...are you out there???

Saturday Make-up Skies

I said I'd give you one but I couldn't decide so you get 3 skies today and you can go see more of my Fair photos on my Flickr site.

Darn-It

Darn, darn, darn. Since I forgot to take Saturday sky photos today and last week I'll give you a nice one I took last night at the State Fair. I'll give you another one tomorrow just for kicks. Yes, you heard me right. I went to the Fair AGAIN. This time I vowed not to eat any fried foods and I did 99% OK. I did have a walleye on a stick which was cheating just a little. Otherwise it was fairly easy to do. Give it a try sometime...

White Project

I've had this unfinished Hardanger class project tucked away for I'm not sure how many years and figured since August was black/white/neutral Project Spectrum month it would be a perfect opportunity to finished it up. The set consists of 8 sampler squares measuring about 4"x4". I'm not too sure what I'll do with them yet, I'm just pleased to have them finished after all this time. Next year I may make a bigger project to enter into the MN State Fair since there were less than 10 entries this year...I'm almost guaranteed to win!